Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Grennan Hill
Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Grennan Hill
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 65239
Site Number NX89NW 7
NGR NX 8254 9507
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/65239
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Penpont
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Nithsdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
NX89NW 7 8254 9507.
(NX 8254 9506) Earthwork (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
This oval fort is situated at about 500 ft OD on the summit of a rocky hillock; it measures 152 ft NNW-SSE by 62 ft transversely. It is defended by a partly rock-cut ditch, 35 ft broad and 16 ft in maximum depth, starting at the brow of the steep slope on the W, passing round the E side to end on the cliffs in the S. Soil from the ditch forms a rampart above the counterscarp, while a parapet mound crowns the scarp in the N.
A well-defined approach enters into a slight hollow at the lowest point of the interior. An ill-defined outwork flanks the S side of the approach. In the interior are three slightly hollowed circular areas which may be hut sites.
RCAHMS 1920, visited 1913; R W Feachem 1956
Air photographs illustrate the fort well.
Visible on RAF vertical air photographs 541.A.529.4439-40.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
NX 8254 9507. A fort occupying a rocky knoll in a commanding position at the end of the sloping ridge south of Grennan Hill at 620 ft OD. The sub-rectangular enclosed area of 46.0m E-W by 24.0m is bounded by a deep ditch on the north and west sides and a 5m high vertical rock face and steep natural slopes on the east and south sides respectively. The ditch is up to 11.5m wide and 3.5m deep with a 0.9m high counterscarp bank and 0.8m high internal rampart on the west side only. On the steep south slope there is a level 2.0m wide terrace which is approximately 5.0m below the summit area. The ditch, terminated by the simple entrance on the north east side, does not appear to have continued beneath the vertical rock face.
There is no clear evidence of an outwork but a slight hollow way leads off from the entrance. Two near-circular 5.0m diameter levelled areas in the undulating interior may be hut platforms.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (TRG) 16 December 1977.
Note (20 December 2013 - 23 May 2016)
This small fortification occupies a rocky hillock on the S spur of Grennan Hill at the top of a long slope falling away steeply on the SW down to the Scar Water about 100m below. On the NW, where the top of the hillock stands between 3.5m and 4m above the surrounding ground, the defences comprise a massive rock-cut ditch up to 11.5m in breadth by 3.5m in depth, which is accompanied by both inner and outer ramparts about 0.8m in high. On the SW, however, the scale of the defences contracts to little more than a scarp dropping down into the ditch, which itself is little more than a terrace 2m in breadth cut into the slope some 5m below the crest of the hillock. In the SE quadrant, where its line is taken up by a vertical cliff-face 5m high, there is no evidence of any additional defences. The entrance lies on the E, and is formed between the return of the ramparts around the terminal of the ditch on the N side and the rock-face extending round the SE flank; it is approached obliquely by a shallow hollowed trackway. The oval interior, which measures about 46m from NW to SE by 24m transversely (0.09ha), contains at least two possible house platforms about 5m in diameter.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC0324
